iFreddySuspense
by Kenneth Hand
Summary: After years of abuse from Carly and Sam, Freddy decides to sabotage the show, with the help of Griffin, who has his own agenda.
iFreddie

By Kenneth Hand

It was a dark, rainy day in Seattle. Freddie was on his way back to his apartment building, having just perused the mall for the latest electronics, to tape the latest episode of iCarly. But today, for some reason, he didn't feel like taping the show. For some time, Freddie had grown tired of standing behind the camera and being told what to do by Carly, and especially Sam. Sam always treated Freddie like trash, and although she had once told him that he was necessary and appreciated on iCarly, he had stopped believing her. Freddie wasn't even sure that Carly appreciated him anymore. And even if she did, she had made it clear that she would never be his girlfriend, and that was all he wanted, after all.

Freddie closed his umbrella as he entered the apartment building. He didn't bother saying hello to Lewbert, the aging doorman who always treated Freddie and his friends rudely. Given his current mood, Freddie was tempted to make a snide comment about the wart on Lewbert's face, but he could not be bothered to do that, either.

As he rode the elevator up to his apartment, Freddie contemplated what life would be like without having to do iCarly, or even without Carly and Sam as his friends. Carly had insisted that they start broadcasting the show more often, sometimes up to three times a week,  
which Freddie considered to be an inconvenience, especially since she had made the decision without consulting Freddie. Freddie had other friends, and had recently become close with Griffin, Carly's old fling who now hated her. He didn't actually need Sam and Carly to be his friends.

Freddie first went to his apartment to retrieve his video equipment, which he had stopped leaving at Carly's apartment, and quickly fix himself up. The apartment had grown peacefully quiet since his mother had mysteriously died one day, by falling down an elevator shaft in the building. In the bathroom, Freddie eyed his reflection. He had changed his hairstyle, or rather, his new stylist had changed it for him, and he liked his hair now. No more Mickey Mouse Club, goodie-two-shoes hair style for Freddie. He now had slick spikes that he often had frosted, though today his hair was its normal chestnut brown.

Freddie debated not going over to do iCarly. He wondered what would happen if he simply did not show up. Would the girls call him? Or more likely, would they come marching over to shriek at him, as they often did? Would Sam hit him, as she had come to do every time he did or said something she didn't like? He was amused by the thought of locking his door,  
and when they came over, telling them to film the show with their _own_ equipment. They would yell at him, without a doubt, but then he could call the police and tell them that he was being harassed. What a notion - this week on iCarly, iAmBeingArrested!

But alas, he was willing to drag himself to Carly's apartment, yet again, to film their popular webshow. The ratings had, indeed, gone up (yes, there was that number of fools who watched the thing) and Freddie had been getting a lot of attention. The possibility of starting his own webshow, or a show with Griffin, had crossed his mind, and Griffin was open to the idea. Freddie supposed that if he ever left the show, Carly and Sam would find another camera boy to tape their show, and although that notion sent something that resembled bitterness through him, he was already embittered, for having been taken advantage of for so long.

When he arrived at Carly's apartment, Spencer was in the middle of making one of his famous sculptures. It was what appeared to be an enormous robot, with a long, silver hose running within and behind it. Freddie had always admired Spencer's art projects, and Spencer himself. Although his personality was indisputably eccentric and wacky, Spencer had always demonstrated loyalty and care for Carly and her friends. He was a good guy.

"Hey, buddy," Spencer called when Freddie entered the apartment. The door was rarely locked.

"Hey, Spence," Freddie said, and half-smiled. Immediately, Sam and Carly came stampeding down the stairs.

"Freddie, you have to tell me the truth!" Carly wailed. "Does my hair look funny in the back?  
Because Sam keeps saying my hair looks funny in the back!" And she whirled around wildly,  
pointing frantically at the back of her head.

"It looks fine," Freddie said quietly, having to check himself from pointing out that the only thing wrong with Carly's hair was that she wore it in the same style as when they had started iCarly, years ago, when Carly was a preteen.

"It does not!" Sam exclaimed, and shoved Freddie forcefully on his shoulder. Freddie fell back.

"You can be so mean sometimes, Sam!" Carly screamed.

"Guys, you don't have to yell all the time," Freddie asserted. "You can make your point without having to raise your voice." Carly and Sam disregarded him and walked back up the stairs to Carly's room to, once again, tape their show, gibbering the entire way. Freddie followed them, as he knew he was meant to do.

Once in Carly's room, which also had not changed for years, since there was a fire in the apartment and they had had to renovate, Freddie set up his equipment. "This always takes forever! I don't know why you stopped leaving your stuff here," Carly complained, and flipped her hair. She smiled at Freddie, sarcastically, he thought, but he ignored her, which he thought would bother her.

Once the equipment was prepared, Freddie turned his camera on and counted them down, and the episode started.

"I'm Carly!" Carly bellowed.

"And I'm Sam!" Sam yelled.

And Freddie zoned out. He was aware that he was holding the camera, filming the iCarly episode as he always did, and he could hear Carly and Sam yammering, but he found himself unable to listen to their words. All of his senses became numb. It was as though he were in a dream, a strange dream in which he had no control over what he was doing, or able to see or feel. He thought that he must have been frowning, but could not really tell. Before he knew it, the episode was over, and once again, Sam and Carly were hollering at him.

"What were the ratings tonight?" Carly demanded to know. "How many people tuned in?"

"Just over a million," Freddie replied somewhat absent-mindedly, after glancing at his computer.  
"A new record."

Sam rolled her eyes. "That isn't a record, Freddie, we have been way over a million before. We need to figure out what went wrong."

"You do that," Freddie said, and, without another word and after gathering up his equipment, left the room.

"Freddie?" Carly called after him, but he didn't turn to even look at her.

LATER THAT DAY...

"I can't stand doing the show anymore, Griffin," Freddie confided to Griffin. They were sitting on the couch in Freddie's living room, watching TV on the enormous Sony flatscreen Freddie had purchased with life insurance money from his mother. "It feels like my life is all about iCarly now.  
She has me doing the show twice a week, sometimes. Sometimes she even wants me to miss school to get stuff ready for the show."

"That's way too much," Griffin agreed, and grinned. He was staring at Freddie deeply, trying to figure out his feelings for his friend. Ever since Griffin had broken up with Carly and realized that he was not attracted to girls, he had developed a wild crush on Freddie. He thought that Freddie liked him back, but wasn't entirely sure.

"And they treat me so badly," Freddie said, and shook his head. "Today Sam pushed me hard, for no reason. And Carly isn't even friendly toward me anymore. She just talks about herself and the show all the time."

Griffin frowned. "That is really strange. When Carly and I went out, she was always so nice. A little _too_ nice at times, actually. It could be a real turnoff for a guy like me. But I didn't know that Sam hit you."

"All the time," Freddie said, and showed Griffin the mark on his arm that Sam had caused. Griffin opened his mouth in surprise and instinctively put his hand on the mark, moving toward Freddie on the couch. Freddie was moved by how Griffin had reacted just then, but decided not to mention it.

"I even started to tune out during iCarly episodes that I film," Freddie continued. "It's really weird. I know that Carly and Sam are in the room with me, doing the episode, and I do all the right things with the camera. But it feels like I am just going through the motions that I'm used to. I can never even remember what any of the episodes are about, anymore. It always feels like I go into some sort of trance."

Griffin was still looking at the bruise on Freddie's smooth, white arm. The more he thought about it, the more it angered him that Sam had pushed Freddie. He wanted to hit her for having shoved him. "You know how you were talking about doing a webshow with me?" he asked. Freddie nodded.

"We should go ahead with it," Griffin suggested. "But we wouldn't do anything dumb like Carly and Sam do.  
Our show would be cooler, more mature. What teens really want to see. We would talk about sex, violence,  
drugs, alcohol. Real issues, what teens are actually into."

"I don't know," Freddie said, and looked down. Although he wanted to do a show with Griffin, and he wanted his show to be less juvenile than Carly's, he wasn't comfortable talking about some of the issues Griffin had brought up.

"Hey," Griffin said, and in an impromptu gesture put his arm around Freddie. He tried to do so in as buddy-buddy way as possible.

"We can talk about it more later," Griffin said. "But what would be really cool would be to air it the same night as iCarly."

Freddie smiled suddenly, momentarily forgetting about how excited he was that Griffin had put his arm around him. "Maybe I should accidentally crash the iCarly website when our show goes on air. Carly and Sam never learned how to operate the website. They always put it all on me." He giggled, in a silly sort of way, as though such a thing was ridiculous and would never really happen.

Griffin grinned and raised an eyebrow. There was something in his expression that Freddie had never seen before, and he thought that years ago, it would have bothered, possibly even scared him. But now he felt confused and unsure. He still felt some semblance of loyalty for Carly and Sam, and yet he had begun to hate them. He knew it.

THAT THURSDAY...

Carly and Sam had been trying to get in touch with Freddie all day, by phone, text, e-mail. He had been absent from school that day, and they were supposed to do iCarly that night. Carly and Sam had prepared the script and set for the show, and now just needed to review a few details with Freddie. The iCarly website was also down, which was alarming, being the night of a show.

"Where could he possibly be?" Carly demanded of Sam in front of her locker, at the end of the school day. Her head was shaking frantically as she spoke. "We need Freddie to film the show! The last time Gibby did it, my head was cut off the whole time!"

Sam, who always despised when Carly bobbled her head when she was talking, resisted the urge to tell her that that was probably a good thing. "If that boy doesn't get back to me by 4:30, I will make sure he pays." And she took a bite out of a gigantic turkey leg she had purchased at the filthy, overpriced school cafeteria.

A few years ago, Carly would have told Sam that that was a mean thing to say, that it was unfair to always take Freddie for granted. But she no longer cared enough to do so. Freddie let them be obnoxious toward them, and all they ever got in return was a dirty look. Carly secretly enjoyed leading Freddie on and using him, because she knew he had feelings for her. She applied lip gloss generously and then shook her head again.

"Try texting him again! Where is he? Where is he?!" she exclaimed querulously.

A short time later, Carly and Sam left the school for Carly's and Freddie's apartment building. On the way there, Carly continued to babble on about the mystery of Freddie's absence from school, and Sam greedily finished the dinosaur-sized turkey leg. Carly had noticed that recently, Sam had started to gain weight from her over-eating. But Carly would never bring it up, because she thought the more Sam gained weight, the more Carly, who rarely ate meals anymore, would be prettier.

As soon as they were upstairs, Sam banged Freddie's apartment door several times. "Girl, get out here!" Sam ordered. "We've got a bone to pick with you!" And she banged the door once with the turkey leg bone she was still wielding. Just then, Griffin emerged from around the corner.

"Griffin?" Carly asked, surprised.

"Hi," Griffin said, coldly. Carly thought she smelled alcohol on Griffin's breath, but wasn't sure and was indifferent anyway.

"Have you seen Freddie today? He didn't come to school, and we have iCarly tonight," Carly said.

"No," Griffin replied, oddly, and gave Sam a once-over.

"What is your problem?" Sam demanded, and crossed her arms.

"Nothing," Griffin said, distant, and walked toward the elevator.

"Weird," Carly remarked, and opened the door to her apartment. Spencer was still working on the robot he had begun days earlier.

"Hey guys," Spencer greeted them, his usual sprightly, zany self. At times her brother's personality got on Carly's nerves, especially recently, as she had been eating less and less. She could only take him on in doses now and caught herself being short with him.

"Hi Spence," Sam said, and she and Carly went upstairs.

"Well, we are going to have to cancel the show if we can't get in touch with him soon," Carly said, tired from not having eaten that day. "We are supposed to be on air in just over an hour."

"Okay," Sam said. "We will have to wait him out, and keep checking the website to see if it comes back up. But just one thing we need to do as we wait."

"What?" Carly asked, confused.

"Order dinner." With that, Sam picked up her phone, and Carly rolled her eyes.

AN HOUR LATER...

Sam was finishing an extra-large pizza that she had ordered from a nearby restaurant that Gibby's parents owned. She had consumed the entire pizza, but for one slice that Carly ate. Once she had devoured the last slice, Sam ate the pepperoni and cheese that had fallen from the pizza into the box.

"Sam, don't you think that pizza is done?" Carly shrieked, her energy back from having eaten the pizza slice.

"Hey," Sam said. Carly had just rebooted the iCarly website, and a totally new interface popped up.  
In place of the colourful, cheery iCarly website design was a black and red frame with pictures of Freddie and Griffin. One of the pictures was of Griffin putting up his middle finger. At the top of the main page was a logo that read "iFreddie".

"What the sweet pepperoni?!" Sam stammered.

Suddenly a video came on. An electric guitar started to play, and Griffin appeared playing it. Then from the right side of the room, Freddie appeared, smiling his puppy-dog smile. He was wearing a form-fitting gray blazer with a white shirt and dark blue jeans. Griffin was wearing a read tank-top,  
showing off his biceps, and skin-tight black jeans with a chain belt.

"I'm Griffin," Griffin said as he played, and grinned.

"And I'm Freddie," Freddie said.

"And this is iFreddie," they declared in unison.

"I can't believe it!" Carly exclaimed. "How could Freddie do this to us? This is _my_ website!"

"This is formerly the iCarly website," Freddie continued. "But after having undergone some changes,  
it is now iFreddie!"

Griffin stopped playing the electric guitar, and picked up a doll with wavy brown hair, that uncannily resembled Carly. He started shaking it in an exaggerated way, making the hair fall over the doll's face. "I'm Carly, and I'm not here right now. I'm too busy throwing up in the washroom and shaking from not eating anymore!"

Carly gasped and looked at Sam. She couldn't believe this was happening. She wondered whether Griffin was behind this. He had been bitter toward Carly since their breakup, and she knew that he was aware that she had started the rumour that he was gay. She felt humiliated that Griffin was not only in on this mean prank, but probably had machinated it himself.

Freddie then appeared again, and rolled up his sleeve. The bruise from's Sam's forceful shove had turned blackish purple. "And Sam isn't here, because I called the cops. She hit me one too many times, and I finally got back at her. I guess she _won't_ be staying out of juvey!"

"Hey! I'm allowed!" Sam exclaimed, but even as she said it, realized that she may have gone too far with Freddie, and may have been going too far for years. Nonetheless, a part of her was hurt and flabbergasted by how nasty this prank was.

"But this show isn't going to be a bitchfest about Carly and Sam," Griffin said. "Because then,  
as always, the show would be all about _them_. Our goal is to keep them off of the internet. Who needs them? We know you teens want to hear about what really matters to _you_, not about spaghetti tacos or bags of yogurt. Who the hell eats spaghetti tacos, anyway?"

Freddie couldn't help but snicker. He had always hated the preposterous spaghetti tacos the girls always seemed to crave, particularly Sam. The show went on for the usual half hour. Freddie and Griffin talked about topical issues in the news, including problems with under-age sex and drinking. They were putting those issues into a comical light, without making light of them, and though still feeling hurt and betrayed, Carly was actually impressed by how real and accessible their show was, even though it was their first episode. Sam, however, was incensed, and took on an entirely different attitude.

"How dare Freddie do this to us!" she declared, once iFreddie had wrapped up. "I'm going to teach that boy a lesson, if it's the last thing I do!"

"Sam, I feel awful about how Freddie sabotaged our show, too," Carly said, and it occurred to her when she said it that she was talking about her and Sam's show, and not Freddie's. Subconsciously, she had stopped giving Freddie credit for the work he did on the show. Tonight he had proven that Carly and Sam needed him. "But if we react rashly, he might not give us the iCarly website back. This might be the end of iCarly."

"That's ridiculous!" Sam went on. "iCarly is _your_ website. You _are_ Carly."

"Well..." Carly trailed off. "It isn't exactly my website. The address and domain are registered under Freddie's name. He always took care of all of the logistics. It's his website as long as he wants to keep it."

Sam's jaw dropped, her cheeks quivering. "That's it!" she hollered, and stormed out of the apartment, Carly hot on her heels.

MEANWHILE, IN FREDDIE'S APARTMENT...

"It was a great show, Freddie," Griffin said, as he took off his electric guitar. He had finished the last scene of the show with an impressive solo. "I think we nailed it."

Freddie looked at his laptop, and raised his eyebrows. "Over two million! The highest iCarly day ever!"

Griffin smiled. "And it wasn't even iCarly." He slowly put his arm around Freddie again, and Freddie pretended not to notice. "We did good together, huh?"

"Yeah, we did," Freddie responded, still playing with his laptop. He was confused about how aggressive Griffin was becoming. When they had been planning the show together, Griffin had taken the driver's seat in just about every decision. Freddie was uncomfortable with certain parts of the script that Griffin had written, but whenever Freddie tried to comment, Griffin would laugh him off and grin wickedly at him. Freddie was into sabotaging iCarly, but he felt that Griffin was being pushy with him,  
almost as pushy as Carly and Sam. The difference was that Freddie liked Griffin, he liked when Griffin put his arm around him, he liked when Griffin started kissing him at one point when they were planning.  
Freddie felt both unsure and ambivalent at the same time.

Suddenly, Freddie heard the same bang on the door as he had earlier. He ducked under Griffin's iron-tight grasp and opened the door.

"What the hell?!" Sam screamed, tempestuously waving the turkey bone from earlier. "What is your bloody problem?" And she marched into Freddie's apartment, pointing the turkey bone at Freddie threateningly. Carly walked in behind her, looking uncertain and confused.

"Sam, look," Freddie said, his hands up instinctively in front of him. He was trembling, as he had begun to do since Sam pulled his head back roughly, once, months ago, and he had to get a brace. Griffin pushed in front of him abruptly and grabbed the bone.

"Don't touch him," Griffin growled. "Touch him, and I will touch you back. And I think I have a little more weight than you."

Sam laughed. "This is our little monkey, Griffin," she insisted. "You can't have him. And you can't have iCarly."

Carly stepped between them. "Guys, let's all just calm down," she said in the most controlled voice any of them had ever heard her use. She turned to Freddie. "I think this is my fault. I have been taking advantage of you for a long time. And you don't deserve that. You are a true part of the iCarly team." Freddie nodded.

Carly continued. "And I know that I have a problem, with eating. I don't know when it started, but I think it came along with the show. I just wanted to keep looking prettier, and I was worried that if I ate, I wouldn't be pretty enough for the show. I think I need to get some help."

Freddie was impressed by how honest Carly was being. He knew that watching the iFreddie show would have been extremely difficult for her to do, but here she was, being true to herself and true to her friends, like the old Carly would have been. The old pangs for her began to rise up in him,  
somewhere. But he still felt like he could not forgive her. She had treated him so abominably for so long, and allowed Sam to physically abuse him. It would be unfair to everyone to simply forgive her, particularly since she hadn't actually apologized.

"I don't care!" Sam screeched, and launched the bone forth toward Freddie. Carly gasped and ducked. Freddie winced. Griffin grabbed the bone and forcibly thrust it back into Sam's stomach. Sam emitted a strange sound, the sound one makes when having fallen. Her look of belligerence turned to one of angst. She tried to push the bone off of her, but Griffin pushed her back, out the door, with the bone in her stomach. She fell clumsily into the hall on her back.

"Griffin!" Carly said, stunned. "You might have hurt her!"

Griffin shrugged. "So? She's beaten up Freddie so many times, she had it coming."

Freddie was as shocked as Carly. He was at once annoyed at Griffin for having taken such a harsh measure, and relieved that Sam could not attack him, that she would think twice before hitting him again. Griffin was protecting him. He was unsurprised that Carly had taken Sam's side, and had not even acknowledged that Griffin was probably in the right by defending Freddie.

For some reason, Freddie slipped his hand into Griffin's then. Griffin turned to him. "Carly, I think you should leave," Freddie said.

"What?" Carly asked, clearly befuddled. "You and Griffin? I thought that Griffin was gay, but..."

"And you told the whole school," Griffin said, finishing her sentence, and nodded.

Carly looked at him, embarrassed, and then looked back at Freddie. "But you made your point with the iFreddie show. I totally recognize how awful Sam and I were to you now. I'm going to change."

Freddie only half-believed her. "Maybe. But Sam won't. I don't know what Sam's problem is, and after all this time, I don't care. I don't need either of you anymore. You are truly bad people.  
Just get the hell out, Carly," he said.

Carly raised her eyebrows and took a deep breath. "Okay," she whispered, and turned toward the apartment door.

"And just another thing," Griffin added. "You're not getting iCarly back. The website's ours now.  
iFreddie is a lot better, anyway."

Carly turned back toward them, and looked at Freddie for support, but he only shook his head. Slowly,  
as though in a slow-motion scene of a movie, she reached for the door, opened it, and left, without looking at them again.

Freddie hadn't realized that tears were running down his face. Somehow, he had intended the iFreddie prank to be only that, a ploy to retrieve Carly's and Sam's attention, to make them understand that he needed them as much as they needed him. But he also knew that if he continued to do the show, Carly and Sam would return to acting the way they always had, to disregarding him, abusing him,  
treating him like their own little puppy who would play fetch and do anything they told him to. Sam would keep hitting him, Carly would keep toying with him. It would be an endless game that he could never win.

"Hey," Griffin said, and pulled Freddie into his arms. "It's okay. You don't need them."

"I know," Freddie said, distantly.

"I want you to be my boyfriend, Freddie," Griffin murmured, and started to kiss Freddie's tears from his face. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Freddie nodded. "Griffin, I really like you. I would be really psyched to have you as my boyfriend."  
As Freddie became more confused, more tears ran down his face.

"And... I already have ideas for the next iFreddie," Griffin said, a grin spreading on his face. "In fact,  
I probably have enough ideas for the next few shows, and I already started one of the scripts. Let's look at it."

And with that, Griffin pulled Freddie forcefully back into the apartment, the apartment where they would film iFreddie. Freddie felt odd and somewhat reserved about Griffin, but he would not argue with him, and would swallow the decisions Griffin made without him. They would be, after all, Griffin's decisions,  
not Carly's or Sam's, and so they were decisions he could live with. Carly and Sam would just have to go to Hell.


End file.
